iTunes raises prices

[Lazerboy5000]

If you haven't notied already, iTunes raised the price on some songs from $.99 to $1.29. For the most part, this only applies to more popular songs, otherwise everything else remained $.99.

So what are you're thought on this? Is it worth paying the extra $.30 on a song you want?

Me, personally this doesn't effect me that much becuase most of the stuff I listen to isn't terribly main stream. It's mostly mainstream pop that was increased, so the alternitive stuff I listen to is still $.99.

One of many news stories:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/ny-bzitune276085225mar27,0,3373502.story

[sdp]

Well all music is DRM free now which is good.

However Amazon offers the same service with no price increase. Basically itunes being punished by the Music Industry for beating them at their own game and for moving the industry forward which the record companies failed to do and have slowly (err..fast) killed their own industry for many years now.

[Wounded_Dragon]

Well, that article is a little biased. It doesn't mention the bottom rung of 69 cents at all.

[Red]

Well, that article is a little biased. It doesn't mention the bottom rung of 69 cents at all.

That's because you can't find any of the 69 cent songs.

[Wounded_Dragon]

That doesn't mean they don't exist.

[Silverstar]

This doesn't really affect me, since it's mainly the mainstream pop songs that are getting the price increase, and I barely listen to mainstream pop. The main songs I purchase are of a less celebrated, eclectic nature, and the less popular stuff is still 99 cents. Also, as was mentioned above, a lot of these same songs are also available on Amazon with no price hike.

However, if it was a song that I really wanted, then I'd pay an extra 30 cents for it. That's still better than paying close to 20 bucks for a CD and only liking 2 or 3 tracks from it.

[Mesousa]

So iTunes secretly dislikes mainstream music?

Okay. :)

[DarthGonzo]

So iTunes secretly dislikes mainstream music?

Nope, they're just trying to get you to pay more for the more popular stuff, since CD sales and declining and money needs to be made somehow.

[Lazerboy5000]

This doesn't really affect me, since it's mainly the mainstream pop songs that are getting the price increase, and I barely listen to mainstream pop. The main songs I purchase are of a less celebrated, eclectic nature, and the less popular stuff is still 99 cents. Also, as was mentioned above, a lot of these same songs are also available on Amazon with no price hike.

However, if it was a song that I really wanted, then I'd pay an extra 30 cents for it. That's still better than paying close to 20 bucks for a CD and only liking 2 or 3 tracks from it.
Yeah, and pretty much the only songs that I liked that did get increased also appeared on Guitar Hero, ex: Prayer of the Refugee and Re-Education are 1.29 where everything else by Rise Against is still .99.

And if you notice, the full albums on iTunes are still 9.99, which is relitivly cheap considering the albums usually sell for around $12 at Best Buy/Walmart. So buying the albums are becoming a better deal. ex: Nickelback's Dark Horse is 9.99 on itunes, where all the individual songs are 1.29.

[defunctzombie]

Eh... Next time I want to buy a full album I'll just get the cd. At least I can control the encoding.

[Elven Moon]

I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Any time I do, something goes wrong with the download and I lose money :crying:

[Lazerboy5000]

I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Any time I do, something goes wrong with the download and I lose money :crying:
Owch, I've never had that happen. I only download songs off of iTunes if I really really want to. But for the most part, I am borrowing some of my friend's CD that they have. You get a lot more music that way.

[Michael24]

Doesn't seem too extreme of a price hike, but like others I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Just an occasional song here and there. I mostly just use it to organize my iPod with songs I import from my own collection, and if I'm interested in an entire album I'll just buy the CD, since I still prefer going into music stores and browsing titles that way. :)

[Raidon Makoto]

I don't listen to anything mainstream anyways. This can only be good for me, actually, since I'm sure some stuff I listen to was lowered to $0.69.

[Tapout]

Doesn't seem too extreme of a price hike, but like others I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Just an occasional song here and there. I mostly just use it to organize my iPod with songs I import from my own collection, and if I'm interested in an entire album I'll just buy the CD, since I still prefer going into music stores and browsing titles that way. :)
QFT. Not that I buy music at all much anymore (the last CD I bought was Death Magnetic in September :sweat:) but if I do I still actually go out and buy the CD. I still like having physical copies of things, and of course in the case my computer craps out I won't have to buy it again.

[Lazerboy5000]

QFT. Not that I buy music at all much anymore (the last CD I bought was Death Magnetic in September :sweat:) but if I do I still actually go out and buy the CD. I still like having physical copies of things, and of course in the case my computer craps out I won't have to buy it again.
I agree that I like having a physical copy of the CD's I buy, like for example, I bought all three Breaking Benjamin CD's, even though they were a couple bucks extra, but it's was worth it. Heck, I even got the Phobia collecters edition with their Homecoming DVD.

[J!!!]

Meh, I use Amazon for my music. The only thing I get on itunes is mostly video's.

[mookie75]

Buying one song I like for $1.29 is still a better deal than buying an album that has one song I like and several that I don't for the price of a full CD. ;)

And, like others have said, if there is a full album that I actually want, I'll probably buy the CD and then upload it to iTunes.

[Sparticus]

Eh, I use Amazon. I think I'd only use Itunes if I was able to rustle up the extra cash from the Rodeo Carburretor or Radwimps albums they have on there (which are both $9.99). Amazon doesn't have ANY j-rock. It makes me sad. :B

[Tapout]

Buying one song I like for $1.29 is still a better deal than buying an album that has one song I like and several that I don't for the price of a full CD. ;)I've never understood that. Even in my high school days when I was really into music, I never really found bands/albums that I only liked one song. Sure, there's a been a few albums that have been 50/50, and even a couple that I regretted buying the whole thing. But I've never looked back and thought "Gee, I wish I had the opportunity to cherry pick this thing for the songs I like." I dunno, maybe its just that unless you're into really mainstream stuff you don't even get the opportunity to hear most of the songs without purchasing the entire album.

[mookie75]

I've never understood that. Even in my high school days when I was really into music, I never really found bands/albums that I only liked one song. Sure, there's a been a few albums that have been 50/50, and even a couple that I regretted buying the whole thing. But I've never looked back and thought "Gee, I wish I had the opportunity to cherry pick this thing for the songs I like." I dunno, maybe its just that unless you're into really mainstream stuff you don't even get the opportunity to hear most of the songs without purchasing the entire album.

Well, one song might have been an exaggeration, but I have many albums where I only like 3 or 4 songs on the whole album. For the penny pinchers out there, buying those songs separately is still less than buying the whole album. I'm not really a penny pincher anymore, but I also don't buy a lot of music anymore.

When you come right down to it, I haven't purchased many songs on iTunes. Those that I have purchased, are songs that I heard on the radio and decided I liked. Quite often I don't even know what the rest of the album that those songs are attached to is like and I usually don't feel like buying the whole thing on the chance that it is all awesome. Even my all-time favorite artists rarely put out an album that has more than a 50% awesomeness ratio with me.

Call me unfair if you wish, but that's the way I buy music nowadays. But again, I don't buy much music anymore anyway....

[Cyporiean]

I've never understood that. Even in my high school days when I was really into music, I never really found bands/albums that I only liked one song. Sure, there's a been a few albums that have been 50/50, and even a couple that I regretted buying the whole thing. But I've never looked back and thought "Gee, I wish I had the opportunity to cherry pick this thing for the songs I like." I dunno, maybe its just that unless you're into really mainstream stuff you don't even get the opportunity to hear most of the songs without purchasing the entire album.

While I do have a lot of full albums on my iTouch, I also have a good deal of artists with only a few songs.. like 4 for Offspring from 3 different cds, 2 by Micheal Jackson, and a bunch with only 1 song (Pink, Wagner, and Edie Brickell to name a few).

I really enjoy being able to cherry pick songs.

[NelStone]

I stopped with purchasing off of iTunes after my computer crashed while I was buying an album and I lost money.

I prefer the CDs anyway. I love having the packaging with all the artwork and such.

While I can understand why one would cherry-pick songs, I always have to have the whole album. It just doesn't feel complete otherwise. It's almost like having slight OCD when it comes to my music collection. Plus I have a bunch of music where one track will lead directly into the next.

[Tapout]

While I can understand why one would cherry-pick songs, I always have to have the whole album. It just doesn't feel complete otherwise. It's almost like having slight OCD when it comes to my music collection. Plus I have a bunch of music where one track will lead directly into the next.That's more of what I meant. As I said, I barely keep up on music anymore, so when one of the few bands I am still into releases a new album, I want to support them.

[Wind-Dive]

Well this doesn't really affect me since I never buy from iTunes anyways. Also, I'm broke so I can't buy anything on the Internet. But so weird why iTunes are raising prices on hot selling singles when there's a recession going on. Probably it's to help boost the economy or something but I don't think it might help anyways.

And for 1 reason we don't really know much since it wasn't publicly announce.

[DarthGonzo]

But so weird why iTunes are raising prices on hot selling singles when there's a recession going on. Probably it's to help boost the economy or something but I don't think it might help anyways.


I don't think it's weird. Because of digital downloads many people are no longer spending money on full albums anymore. Raising prices on the hottest music balances things out a little bit.

[Wind-Dive]

I don't think it's weird. Because of digital downloads many people are no longer spending money on full albums anymore. Raising prices on the hottest music balances things out a little bit.

Yeah that is sorta true. And besides I download free music all the time anyways. So I guess they are balancing things out.

[purplehairedwonder]

I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Any time I do, something goes wrong with the download and I lose money :crying:The last time I bought an album from iTunes my download was interrupted so like 3 songs didn't get downloaded. But there's a help section where you can contact them if your download gets messed up--the next time I got on iTunes, the downloads started right back up and finished without a problem. It was a slight hassle, but in the end I got all my music with no questions asked. And since my internet connection is pretty sketchy, it's good to know that exists.

[Yash]

As someone who enjoys popular music but only uses iTunes to buy something if I can't find it through, uh... other means, this news affects me little.

It sounds dumb, though. I respect the business aspect of it, but if record companies want more money, then they should make better music.

[Lazerboy5000]

I was browsing iTunes today, beucase I was in the mood to actually buy something today, and I noticed a lot of stuff that I would have purshaced today was actually 1.29. Paramore's Riot! was 1.29 on all of their songs, as well as "Pressure" from All We Know is Falliing. Also, Dave Mathews Band's "Crash Into Me" was their only 1.29 song, and I realy wanted to get that song today. I think this 1.29 thing is going to catch up to me. but I was planing on 'Completing My Album' for Riot! which I already got two songs off of (before the price increase) and to get 10 songs would only cost me $8 (and that's now a pretty good deal, seeing as all the remaining songs are 1.29).

[Vyse]

I'm mad at iTunes because they removed a bunch of J-Pop off of their listings. Mostly they are from avex and Geneon, but that was a big supply of artists (Ayumi Hamasaki and m.o.v.e in particular). Maybe they weren't going to play with iTunes Plus yet or were on a timed schedule.

As for buying stuff on iTunes, if it's there I'm buying it. The last two CDs I bought in stores were Incredibad and Chinese Democracy, but one was because I preferred owning the CD for that album (former) and the other was an impulse buy (latter). I buy frequently on iTunes and do cherry-pick. Maybe that's part of the reason why I didn't get or fully listen to Daft Punk's Homework and Discovery albums until a few weeks ago (WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, DAFT PUNK?). Both albums were purchased off of iTunes because my nearest record store is a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, where no albums are explicit.

As for the popular song price hike, I don't care because I also have Amazon. If I ever wanted "Hoedown Throwdown," I can just create another tab and get it like that.

[Speedy Boris]

Last night was the first time I downloaded anything off iTunes, and yes, I was a little miffed that certain songs were $1.29, like a couple Michael Jackson hits. It meant that was one less song I could purchase before my gift card points ran out.

[Flame Alchemist]

I rarely download from iTunes anyway. Any time I do, something goes wrong with the download and I lose money :crying:
You should probably email Apple about that. If you pay for a song and it doesn't download, they will know if you downloaded it. If you did, they can make it so next time you open iTunes, it'll download the song. I've had to do it a few times.

[defunctzombie]

I haven't shopped for songs in a while, and I don't think I'm going to any time soon. I looked on itunes and amazon today, and wasn't pleased. I think all the songs on an album should be the same price. If I want Zombie's Dragula or PJ's Alive, I have to pay more just because people have actually heard those ones more than the others? Supply and demand works in the real world, but it's silly in the binary world.